CW-Bali

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and Limited Partnerships (LPs) [Abstract]

Schedule Of Subsidiary Of Limited Liability Company Description [Text Block]

22. CW-Bali

Through its subsidiary CW-Bali, the Company built a seawater reverse osmosis plant located in Nusa Dua, one of the primary tourist areas of Bali, Indonesia. The Company built this plant based upon its belief that future water shortages in this area of Bali would eventually enable it to sell all of this plant’s production. Since inception of CW-Bali’s operations in 2013, the sales volumes for its plant have not been sufficient to cover its operating costs and CW-Bali has incurred net losses. The Company’s net losses from CW-Bali for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, were approximately ($218,000) and ($1.9 million). The results of CW-Bali are included in the retail segment for segment reporting purposes.

In May 2017, after considering CW-Bali’s historical and projected operating losses, its on-going funding requirements, the current business and economic environment in Bali and the Company’s inability to obtain a strategic partner for CW-Bali, the Company’s Board of Directors formally resolved to discontinue CW-Bali’s operations. Based upon this decision to cease CW-Bali’s operations, the Company estimated the future cash flows the Company would receive under various scenarios from the disposition of its investment in CW-Bali and assigned a probability to each scenario to determine an estimated fair value of its investment in CW-Bali. Based upon these probability-weighted sums, the Company recorded impairment losses totaling approximately ($1.7 million) in 2017, which are included in loss on long-lived asset dispositions and impairments, net in the accompanying consolidated statements of income. 

The Company planned to cease the production of water in Bali, sell its stock in CW-Bali or CW-Bali’s net assets, and exit the Bali market at the earliest practical date. However, in October 2017, CW-Bali’s sole remaining customer filed a lawsuit in the district court of Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia against CW-Bali, its President, and the Company’s Chief Financial Officer in his capacity as the President of CW-Bali’s Board of Commissioners (i.e. Directors) seeking compensatory damages of 57.1 billion rupiahs and punitive damages of 26 billion rupiahs as a result of the anticipated breach of this customer’s water supply agreement that will arise from CW-Bali’s planned cessation of operations. The Company believed this lawsuit was without merit and vigorously defended CW-Bali and the two other defendants. However, until this lawsuit was resolved the Company was legally prohibited from disposing of its investment in CW-Bali or any of CW-Bali’s assets. In April 2018, the Denpasar court ruled that it had no authority to adjudicate this case due to a clause in the water supply agreement that requires all disputes to be handled through arbitration in Singapore. However, the customer immediately filed an appeal with respect to the Denpasar court ruling. In October 2018, the Denpasar appeals court issued its ruling which upheld the previous court’s ruling, thereby denying the customer’s appeal.